South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Leaders remember Hastings
Congressman was champion of Black-Jewish relations, champion of Israel
Congressman Alcee Hastings, who was well known as a fighter for civil rights for Black Americans, was an ally of the Jewish community, where he was known as a friend of Israel and advocate for Black-Jewish relations.
Hastings, who was serving his 15th term representing parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties, died Tuesday.
“The Jewish community lost a champion,” said Matt Levin, CEO of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County.
Hastings “led the charge in forging Black-Jewish ties in Congress,” the American Jewish Committee said in a statement.
“AJC was proud to work closely with him in both Washington and Florida. We will always be grateful for his partnership.”
“The Jewish community has lost one of their loudest voices and defenders. RIP,” Jared Moskowitz wrote on Twitter. He is a former a former state representative from northwest Broward and outgoing director of the state Emergency
Management Agency.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency news service said Hastings “led advocacy on Jewish issues in Congress and helped guide Black-Jewish relations through periods of tension.” The JTA described him as “the pro-Israel community’s most reliable ally in the Congressional Black Caucus.”
In a 2012 statement on Yom
Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, Hastings said he had visited Israel 14 times since his election to Congress in 1992.
Broward Mayor Steve Geller, who knew Hastings for decades, said the congressman’s longstanding support for Israel was well known in the Jewish commu
nity. “I can tell you that Alcee was popular among a lot of Jews because Alcee was a well-known, vocal supporter of the state of Israel.”
U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, a Broward-Palm Beach County Democrat, said Hastings “knew the importance of bringing together the Black and Jewish communities to achieve shared goals. He was a staunch supporter of the US-Israel relationship and valued the important bilateral partnership.”
And former U.S. Rep. Ron Klein said in a statement that Hastings “understood Israel’s strategic relationship with the U.S. and was a consistent and strong supporter of the state of Israel.
He also empathetically understood the shared experiences of the Jewish community and African American community and was a leader in tying the two communities together.”
Klein, chairman of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, represented Broward and Palm Beach counties for two terms.
In 2019, when U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota tweeted that U.S. politicians’ strong support for Israel was motivated by money, Hastings condemned his fellow Democrat’s comments.
“The line between respectful critiques of American foreign policy and the embrace of anti-Semitic tropes is not difficult to distinguish.
Implying that Americans support Israel and the Jewish community because of money is offensive and cannot be tolerated,” Hastings wrote on Twitter.
Hastings, the first Black congressman from Florida since the post-Civil War era of Reconstruction, began his legal career as a civil rights lawyer in 1960s Broward County. At a Jewish American Heritage Month event in Hallandale Beach in 2014, Hastings recalled how Jewish people were part of the fight against segregation in Broward in the 1960s.
In a written tribute to Hastings, Levin said his godfather worked with Hastings on civil rights issues in the 1960s.
“He demonstrated, in word and deed, the necessity for an unwavering commitment to what is just, even when it is unpopular
— even when you may be unpopular,” Levin said. “His fight was consistently for the unheard and ignored, and he fought that fight until the end.”